Poor Grumpy Angus isn’t the center of attention right now and when he’s had enough he plants himself in front of the camera. Geesh! 🙄
Day Dress
Purple Pleat Magic Redux
Some wisdom pearls need repeating… 🙂
Behold the power of a pleat! It’s not the fold itself, it’s…the understitching. When a pleated ruche is placed in directions that defy gravity, understitching is required. Invisible handwork like this requires me to use a darning needle for (long and thin) so I can sit on the floor with the hem closer to my eye level. For me, using this technique allows me to tack each pleated corner so it stays in place. Why so particular? These diagonal ones in the front will take the brunt of walking, but the piped longer ones on the skirt back and train will flutter, because their hem is free. 🙂
The Struggle…
The delicate dance of balancing tall hats and parasols, between the perils of possible hair pulling and eye gouging.. the struggle is real!
And For A Little More Victorian Style Color…
As a follow-up to our previous post on harmonizing colors, we offer some more thoughts on the subject of color and Victorian style. Generally speaking, dresses could take one of two basic forms when it came to color: all one solid color (i.e. monochromatic) or combinations of two or more colors. The concept of the one-color dresses is pretty straight-forward:
Day Dress, 1877; Metropolitan Museum of Art (2009.300.2432a, b)
Day Dress, European or American, circa 1885; Bunka Gakuen Costume Museum
Liberty & Co. (attributed), Ballgown, c. 1880s; Metropolitan Museum of Art (1985.155)
Maison Truffert, San Francisco, Evening Dress/Ball Gown, c. 1894 – 1896; Augusta Auctions
Worth, Ball Gown, c. 1896; Metropolitan Museum of Art (1982.299a, b)
But the use of a single color could also take the form of a patterned fabric:
Day Dress, 1885; V&A Museum (T.7&A-1926)
Day Dress, c. 1880; The Museum at FIT (P92.21.1)
Day dresses were more likely to be found in one color than ball gowns and evening dresses but in either case, using one color tended to give a somewhat flat look to the the dress so often lace trim, patterned material such as embroidery, or some other decorative effect was utilized to counter this. Below are several examples of this:
Worth, Ballgown, 1889; Metropolitan Museum of Art (C.I.68.53.11a, b)
Worth, Ballgown, c. 1894; Kyoto Costume Institute (AC4799 84-9-2AB)
Day Dress, c. 1880s; Fashion History Museum Ontario
Lace was often employed to add dimension and depth:
Day Dress, c. 1894 – 1896; FIDM Museum (S2006.870.22AB)
In some cases, dresses employed a combination of plain and patterned fabrics, all in the same basic color such as with this dress:
Day Dress, c. 1885; Walsall Museums (WASMG : 1976.0832)
More common in dresses was the use of a combination of colors which usually took the form of different colored fabrics for the under and over skirts or the bodice and hem:
Worth, Ensemble-/Reception Dress/Evening Bodice, c. 1877 – 1878; Cincinnati Art Museum (1986.1200a-c)
Day Dress, Mid 1890s; Augusta Auctions, Museum of the City of New York Deaccession.
Bourdereau Veron & Cie, Place de la Bourse, Paris, Day Dress, c. 1893; Kent State University Museum (1983.1.207 ab)
Often, stripes and/or patterns were also employed in the color combination:
Day Dress, Emile Pingat, French, c. 1874; Philadelphia Museum of Art (1938-18-12a,b)
Here’s a couple examples of more complex use of color combinations. In the dress on the left, solid light and dark blue are combined with a patterned fabric that’s also predominantly blue. On the right, red with floral embroidery is combined with solid colored white/ivory lace.
In this example below, a solid black underskirt is combined with a bodice/overskirt of dark green striped black silk with floral appliques. Black beading and feathers further accentuate the color combination:
Reception Dress, c. 1890; Goldstein Museum of Design (2013.004.012)
Outer garments could also provide an added element to the color combination as with the figure on the left with a wine/burgundy-colored mantle with celadon trim that matched the solid celadon-colored dress. The figure on the right demonstrates a combination of ivory-colored lace and solid pink:
Color combinations could even take the forms of stripes and patterns:
Day Dress, c. 1875; Bunka Gakuen Costume Museum
And probably one of the most dramatic uses of two colors can be found with this ball gown that utilizes just stripes:
Doucet, Ball Gown, c. 1890; Mint Museum, Charlotte, North Carolina (1998.13A-B)
Pops of color could also be used as part of a color combination. In the example below, an ivory-colored front under bodice and center underskirt grabs the eye:
Worth, Day Dress, c. 1890 – 1893; Kerry Taylor Auctions
And on a larger scale, the use of the red as a color pop goes a long way towards making this evening dress an eye-catcher:
Worth, Evening Ensemble Dress, 1893; Metropolitan Museum of Art (2009.300.622a–c)
The above illustrations gives only a small hint at the combinations and methods that were employed in utilizing color and it’s clear that while pure colors (e.g., one colored fabric with another) could be employed in combination, the combination could also take the form of striped or patterned fabrics, lace, and/or other trims in various colors. More importantly, it’s not just about layer colors, but it’s about layering colors in varying textures and luster to create a garment that projects depth and ultimately a life of its own.
And For A Little Fashion From Sweden…1880s Style
With our upcoming trip to Sweden in September, we decided to dig a little into the Sweden’s fashion history as it relates to the late 19th Century and we found some interesting fashion plates from a Swedish fashion magazine entitled Freja. Unfortunately, we don’t know anything about the publication but the fashion plates were compelling and so we had to share them. 🙂 First up in the spirit of the summer season is these two plates:
The styles depicted in these plates are fairly standard for the period but are still compelling in that each has a fairly similar silhouette yet each one has an individual style. In the first plate from August 1885, the figure on the left’s dress is a solid color with matching hat with the skirt having multiple layers of ruching and ruffles. The sleeves and bodice front are a bit over the top with all the excess lace and overall the dress reads a bit too formal for the seaside. The dress on the right presents a contrast with a printed floral design combined with a solid color ruched pseudo-waist/vest underneath the bodice front. The color combination presents a harmonious combination (allowing for the fact that this is a colored fashion plate). Finally, the dress on the right presents a unified whole with clean lines and minimal trim.
In this plate from August 1886, we see two more different styles in which the waist is far more minimized than in the first plate. The dress on the left creates the illusion of a closed robe with white lace providing a contrast layers that outlines the rest of the dress. The garment is drawn in at the waist with a belt and gives an illusion of a continuous garment although it’s obvious that the bodice and skirt are separate (of course, we could be wrong, considering that we’re looking at a photograph of the place). The use of contrasting white lace flounces provides an interesting effect that outlines the garment and draws the eye in.
The dress on the right provides a different style approach with the use of a solid color combined with a thin material (probably some variety of a light cotton voile or similar over a heavier cotton underlayer (cotton seems the logical choice). The folds of the lighter outerlayer creates the effect of a loose-fitting garment although it’s obvious that there’s a corset and bustle on underneath. Perhaps a nod towards aesthetic dress? 🙂 If nothing else, it certainly gives off a princess line appearance. Unfortunately, we don’t have access to the commentary that accompanied these places so a lot of our comments are based on a bit of conjecture.
The two dresses depicted in the above plate from February 1885 are more of what could be termed reception or visiting dresses and were meant for more indoors wear. The dress on the left is an interesting combination of a silk brocade underskirt combined with a solid silk overskirt, all in the same gold colors with a bit of white lace running long the front to provide contrast. The black velvet (conjecture on our part) bodice offers an interesting color counterpoint to the skirts. Thin strips of gold brocade fabric running on each edge of the bodice front provides a continuation of the skirts, drawing the eye upwards with a pseudo-waist of white lace for contrast.
Compared to the left dress, the right dress provides a light and airy contrast with its white lace underskirt, apron, and inner bodice combined with a rich red velvet-like outerskirt and bodice. It’s a visual one-two punch that definitely attracts the eye. 🙂
In this last plate from December 1884, we see a combination of afternoon/visiting dresses done in a combination of solid color velvet combined with velvet brocade. The dress on the right provides the best view with a velvet brocade underskirt combined with a solid-colored overskirt trimmed in fur. The bodice presents a dramatic appearance with a plastron of the same velvet brocade as the underskirt combined with solid-colored sleeves. This dress gives an effect of a robe being worn on the outside although it’s obvious that the bodice and skirts are separate. The above is just a taste of what was in style for Sweden during the mid-1880s and in future posts we hope to uncover more.